vilian guard due to a bombing accident triggered a massive protest and a formal
request from the civilian community to end the use of Vieques as a bombing
range and military post. A key argument supporting the request that the U.S.
Navy leave Vieques was the claim that bombing caused contamination and en-
vironmental damage to the area. Bombing was indicted as the cause of unusual
patterns of morbidity and disease among the local population. This well-
documented (Giusti 1999; Benedetti 2000) process consolidated the interests and
forces of the civilian community, including the environmental movement.
Agriculture
In the early twentieth century, the agricultural economy of the coastal zone
was dominated by sugar and cattle grazing. However, despite increasing tobacco
production by U.S. firms (Pumarada-O Neill 1993), Puerto Rico s agricultural
economy contracted steadily from the 1930s on, especially in the coastal zones.
In the late 1980s, the amount of land devoted to agriculture increased slightly
owing to government policies stimulating production of crops for local consump-
tion (rice, tomatoes) and for export (millet, mangoes), but these efforts did little
to reverse the steady decline of agriculture. While urbanization and industrial
development brought new social and economic pressures to bear in conflicts over
space and resources, agriculture played a major role in habitat loss and envi-
ronmental deterioration in the coastal zone, processes that occurred quietly and
imperceptibly without generating environmental opposition.
Industrial Development
Puerto Rico s economic and industrial miracle resulted from government
investments in infrastructure and the success of tax-exemption mechanisms in
luring stateside manufacturing firms and enterprises to the island to establish
what came to be called 936 industries (so named after the Internal Revenue
The Environmental Movement in Puerto Rico 49
Service Code, Section 936). Industrial development occurred in several phases:
garment firms were followed by electronic appliance manufacturers, food pro-
cessing plants, heavy refineries, advanced electronics, and pharmaceutical plants
(López Montañez and Meyn 1992; CIIES 1992). The latter phase of the indus-
trial development process entailed production of large quantities of toxic wastes,
which in turn led to acute health problems on the island, especially in the 936-
Industrial Belt of the north coast.
The government controlled the supply of water and electricity, the latter
generated by a network of petroleum combustion plants built throughout the
coastal zone. In addition, dams and reservoirs were constructed for the water
supply. The results of this process in terms of habitat destruction and introduc-
tion of exotic species have not been assessed. However, reservoirs came into
the limelight during a recent drought when it was discovered that construc-
tion permits had been authorized for critical watersheds. Construction in those
areas had caused erosion and the accumulation of sediment, which in turn had
dramatically reduced the storage capacity of the reservoirs, thus contributing to
the so-called drought.
The environmental movement has consistently criticized development in
reservoir watersheds and has confronted both the state and the private sector on
the detrimental impacts of infrastructure and industrial development on coastal
areas. Citizens have also played a key role in environmental protection. For ex-
ample, fishers and coastal settlers have opposed the construction of oil refiner-
ies on the south coast (Pérez 2000), as well as an attempt to build a coal-fired
generating plant on the west coast (Maldonado 2000; Anazagasti 2000). The
environmental movement against the coal plants in Rincón and Aguada in the
1970s and 1980s is typical of industrial societies: it was carried out by pure grass-
roots movements and community-based organizations, energized by community
activists and other political actors. A recent study in the municipality of Guánica,
on the south coast of Puerto Rico, shows how the local population formed a
pluralist body made up of residents ranging from teachers to fishermen, and of
all political tendencies, that has engaged in many struggles against industrial
development and pollution (Acosta 1995).
Environmental Health Issues
Health and water quality are issues that have united many environmental
organizations throughout the years. As noted scientist and environmentalist
Neftalí García (1988) argues, one basic concern of the grassroots environmen-
tal movement has been the health of the local population, which has been im-
pacted by industrial development and the ensuing contamination of the water
and air. In the municipality of Cataño, south of old San Juan, a group of local
residents organized a movement to protest the level of particulate matter emit-
ted by an energy plant in the municipality managed by the Commonwealth s
Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica (AEE). The Federal Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) designated the area as the Cataño Air Basin, and recognized the
50 Manuel Valdés Pizzini
health problems caused by violations by the government energy company (AEE).
Similar grass-roots organizations coalesced in the town of Guayama in the south
and among industrial workers in the western city of Mayagüez.
Mayagüez also witnessed the rise of a grassroots movement called
Mayagüezanos por la Salud y el Ambiente, which has been active in opposing
the AEE s plans to build a coal-fueled electricity generating plant and to sub-
contract its operations to the Congentrix firm. Main issues in the campaign were
the health of the nearby communities and the potential hazards posed by other
projected plants. These and other efforts on behalf of health in the workplace
and in the communities are perhaps the direct heirs of the fight to control con-
tamination caused by oil refineries in Cataño in the early 1980s, in Guayanilla
in the south coast in the 1970s, and by Union Carbide in Yabucoa in the east
from 1973 to 1985.
Industrial contamination of freshwater and coastal bodies of water has been
a major problem in Puerto Rico, affecting watershed areas, underground aqui-
fers, and coastal waters. Environmental NGOs like Misión Industrial, consult-
ing firms (Servicios Técnicos), state officials (Environmental Quality Board
1994), university programs such as Puerto Rico s Sea Grant College (Vélez-
Arocho 1994; Chaparro 1998), international environmental organizations, and
independent researchers (Hunter and Arbona 1995) have undertaken critical as-
sessments of Puerto Rico s water problems, pointing to the role of illegal prac-
tices by industries and of waste disposal by communities and individuals. Local [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]